Why are hurricanes named after people? Understand how cyclone naming works

This Tuesday (28), Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica with winds of up to 295 km/h, one of the highest speeds ever recorded in the Atlantic. But, Where do the names of hurricanes come from? There are those who believe that only women’s names are intended for these natural phenomena, but this is not true.

The entity responsible for this is the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which indicates that naming hurricanes has proven to be the fastest way to communicate warnings and increase public awareness and preparednessin addition to facilitating tracking.

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A hurricane will not always be named after a personas each region chooses some rules to identify cyclones. However, the use of short and distinct names — both in written and oral communication — has historically been shown to be quicker to remember and less prone to errors.

According to the WMO, the use of female names for storms began in the mid-20th centurywhen meteorologists were looking for a more organized and efficient system.

Starting in 1953, North Atlantic scientists decided to identify hurricanes in alphabetical order — for example Anne, Betty, Carrie, and so on — with a list drawn up by the National Hurricane Center, a division of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Male names for Atlantic storms were introduced in 1979 and continue today.

In other parts of the world, names follow the alphabetical order of the countries and are not necessarily named after people.

How are hurricane names selected?

The WMO states that the selection of names takes into account the familiarity of the inhabitants of each region with cyclones, aiming to facilitate understanding and memorization. There are names defined until 2029, with a replacement list.

See some factors that are analyzed to define the names of hurricanes:

• With short characters for easy use in communication
• easy to pronounce
• Appropriate meaning in different languages
• Exclusivity – the same names cannot be used in other regions

It is worth remembering that a name can be removed from the active list at the request of any Member State in the region if a storm with that identification has gained particular notoriety due to the human casualties and damage caused.

Hurricane names from 2025 to 2029

The list of hurricane names for the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic covers only 21 letters of the alphabet, with the removal of the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z, which can confuse the identification of a cyclone.

The names are in English, French and Spanish, used in a balanced way in the list to reflect the geographic range of the storms. Check it out:

Source: World Meteorological Organization